Photo Credit: Caitlin Mellors
As 2025 nears its end, Manchester’s finest Doves returned to the steel city for another night filled with fan favourites, this time in the support of their best of record ‘So, Here We Are‘. After securing their eighth top 20 record in the Official Album Charts, the Williams brothers ensured to go out with a bang, as they always do, but this time at The Octagon Centre, a venue almost twice in size as their sold out Leadmill show earlier on this year.
A booming Sheffield crowd flocked to the venue just in time for Doves‘ entrance, with cheers filling the room the moment the band emerged from the side of the stage. Opening their career spanning performance with ‘Words‘, taken from their chart topping sophomore release ‘The Last Broadcast’, fans of their older releases soon made themselves heard from the get go. Bringing ‘Carousels’ into the set early doors continued the intensity that the band deliver with every show, and the addition of the recently uncovered single ‘Spirit of Your Friend’ had the whole room engaged with a handful joining in.
Dipping into all of their albums as they proceed with the set, favourable tracks ‘Rise‘ and ‘Prisoners‘ were the most appreciated at this stage in the show, with ‘Here It Comes’ amongst the big hitters at the halfway mark. Showing no signs of slowing down, Doves ploughed through the remainder of their performance. As ‘Catch the Sun’ concluded, the iconic beat of ‘Pounding‘ was met with an almighty cheer from the Sheffield crowd, and the loudest reception of the evening was so far was going to be a tough one to beat.
Pulling out all the stops for the final portion of the night, ‘Caught by the River’ and ‘The Cedar Room’ perfectly set up fan favourite ‘Black and White Town’ which had the whole room singing along. Arms were raised and voices certainly heard, the conclusion of their 2005 hit saw the band exit the stage for a few minutes, building up the anticipation of an encore.
Doves do not let their fans down. Taking up their positions once again for three more songs, ‘Snowden’ kicked off the encore, and ‘There Goes the Fear’ which has served as the final track on many occasions, wasn’t this time around. Concluding their Sheffield return with a throwback to their Sub Sub days, the almighty ‘Space Face’ encouraged everyone in the room to let loose once more for a real Hacienda style finale.
Taped Magazine 